


little king (and your crown of curses)

by yoongisapphic



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Katekyou Hitman Reborn!
Genre: Memory Loss, Not Again, Other, Past Child Abuse, Rational Fear Of Reborn, Rational Fear Of Walburga Black, Regulus-Is-Skull, child abuse tw
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-15
Updated: 2018-05-15
Packaged: 2019-05-07 12:30:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 993
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14671122
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yoongisapphic/pseuds/yoongisapphic
Summary: regulus doesn’t recall muchhe’s reggie and he’s skullhe knows all these names and all these placesit’s just that the memories keep slipping from his grasp





	little king (and your crown of curses)

**Author's Note:**

> another skull-is-someone-from-the-hp-universe fic? more likely than you’d think
> 
> but for real.
> 
> also i still have a bajillion things to add to my oneshot fic but im v. lazy

 And he stops, and he just sits there for a moment and breathes. He feels like screaming, but he doesn't. He just sits, and thinks, and breathes, and remembers for the first time in his memory. Because he didn't used to be Skull de Mort, did he? He was Regulus Arcturus Black. He was a wizard, and a traitor, and somewhere in both people's memories he was a Cloud, or an Amethyst.

Colour-core users were uncommon, and Amethyst ones particularly sought after, and for exactly those two reasons did he hide them from his Mother (who would have presented it as another facet of his Pureblood superiority.)

Someone's looking at him with something like concern; only concern doesn't usually come with a punch to the gut.   
Concern is Kreacher's flapping about madly in an attempt to fulfil his every desire, or Sirius' fleeting, longing glances (wanting to protect him from his Mother's poison and his Father's endless silent disapproval.) After a moment, the person's face comes more into focus, despite the blossoming pain in his side (nothing like the Cruciatus, though. Thank God.) Skull recognises the person as Colonello-senpai, but Regulus sees a Muggle who has just attacked him without provocation.

He hisses, and scrambles backwards, away from the assailant. He'd attack, but his Core is screaming at him that this is one who he has sworn to protect, and his generalised Magic is too overstimulated to try doing anything. The blonde attacker is speaking, saying something worriedly- maybe asking something- but he can't register what it is. He keeps shuffling backwards frantically until his back comes up against a wall- no, not a wall, a person. He's tall, dark, and admittedly handsome, with a certain exotic aura that Regulus doesn't encounter all too often. He's also smirking down at him like this is a regular occurrence, and Regulus wonders who the hell he is. Skull's memories supply him with a name- Reborn-senpai- and a large feeling of fear.

Regulus doesn't fear a great many things. He's always been afraid of his Mother, a deep-set feeling that had been beaten into him as a child. Maybe that’s why her name falls from his lips so fluidly in the face of this ungodly terror.

“Mother, not crucio, Mother, please no, Mother-“ He babbles, eyes wide with horror as he tries pathetically to fling himself as far away as possible from the two of them, finally coming up against a real, solid wall. He pulls his knees up to his chest, burying his head in them and luckily he doesn’t dissolve into sobs, but it’s a close thing-–

The only thing keeping his tears down is that he knows the pain gets worse when he cries, and if that isn’t fucked up he doesn’t know what is. Sirius was always saying it but-

Sirius is gone. Sirius left us, that pitiful traitor. He left us alone- light side scum. Kreacher thinks Regulus dead. He is dead. He can’t breathe, he’s dead, and the tears keep rising in even though he knows what happens when he cries, the crucio is coming and he-–

“You alright, Skull?” Colonello-senpai asks, voice as soft as he can make it. “Just breathe. In. Out. You’re okay. You’re safe here.” The sound of his voice is soothing, and Regulus- tired, tired Regulus- finds himself obeying without much thought.

He’s almost calm when he notices the other man, Reborn-senpai, who for some reason he is afraid of, stepping into view. His eyes are wide and his mouth tight; he can’t look away, transfixed by the source of this internal sense of danger. But Regulus had magic, didn’t he?

He was pure, wasn’t he?

What did he have to fear, the scion of the House of Black, most Ancient and Noble and _Toujours Pur_. Regulus was powerful.

What did he have to fear from this man, no magic to boot?

He still can’t bring himself to tear his gaze away, like prey before a predator. Reborn-senpai moves a hand to adjust his hat, and Regulus flinches away instinctively. He pauses, leaving the action half completed. He locks eyes with Regulus, and looks somewhere between surprised and hurt.

“Skull?” He asks, voice an edgy baritone and Regulus knows that name but it isn’t him, he isn’t dead, or is he? “Skull, what’s going on?”

He doesn’t want to tell him. The man feels like the Sun, hot and burning; dangerous. He feels like Icarus. But, like Icarus, he can’t help but give in. He speaks almost without wanting to, like its a conditioned response.

“Don’t know.” He says, voice clipped and echoey at the same time. “Don’t remember. Scared.”

He hadn’t meant to say that. Not like that, either. He sounded so curt. So informal. His mind was all messed up. Strings tangling together and he could sort of remember things, but... Everything was so muddled. He knew lots, but didn’t know how he knew it, exactly.

“Would it help if I- If I left?”

Reborn-senpai asked, looking so put out that Skull shouted “No!” without putting much thought into it at all.

“Need fear. Fear makes... stronger. More now, less to show for enemies later.” He’s so tired, and it’s so hard to remember how to speak. “Trust the darkness.” He murmurs.

Reborn-senpai looks anxious, now.

“Skull is gone.” He tries. It doesn’t sound right on his pierced tongue. “Skull never here-“

That doesn’t fit around the chain on his lip, either. “Skull is here, but changed. Old, new Skull. He remembers.” He exhales heavily, everything is so much effort— he’s so tired— but this is important. “No Mist, no other. Skull, Reg, is all. Hard. Tired. Scared.”

If Reborn-senpai looks anxious, then Colonello-senpai looks horrified.

Skull huffs one more breath and asks, “Understand?”

They frown, but at his pointed looks, they incline their heads. The second they do, he allows the darkness to encase his vision. Almost like-

_Like a coffin closing._

**Author's Note:**

> comments keep my skin clear, my crops watered, and my soul fed


End file.
